Pennsylvania Politics Stop at the Water's Edge

Apparently brotherly love doesn't extend across the Delaware River to New Jersey. Pennsylvania's Governor Ed Rendell and U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, normally political opponents, have formed an alliance to threaten New Jersey with retaliation for reneging on a gentleman's agreement about dredging the waterway that separates the two states. Both pols are up for re-election this year.

At issue are shipping lanes up the Delaware River to Philadelphia. Pennsylvania wants to dredge them by five feet and share the cost with New Jersey. Governor Rendell says he had assurances from almost-former New Jersey Acting Governor Richard Codey that New Jersey's representatives on the Delaware River Port Authority would approve the agreement as soon as last year's gubernatorial election was out of the way. They haven't and Messrs. Rendell and Santorum are ready to rumble.

Mr. Santorum, the Senate Republican Conference Chairman, has vowed to strangle any Congressional legislation benefiting New Jersey if the neighboring state doesn't cry uncle. "I'll just assure you that anything New Jersey-specific, we will have a hold on it in the United States Senate until this is taken care of," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Mr. Rendell, for his part, is threatening to shut down the high-speed commuter rail line that feeds New Jerseyans into Philadelphia.

New Jersey Governor-elect Jon Corzine has so far declined to get involved, but he'll have no choice after January 17, when he's sworn in. The Pennsylvania donnybrook isn't New Jersey's only riparian border scrap. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to settle a dispute with Delaware over a pier New Jersey wants to build on its side of the river. In that case, Mr. Codey last year proposed to settle the matter by calling the U.S.S. New Jersey out of retirement and training her guns on Dover. The dreadnought is berthed a hundred yards of so from Philly. No word yet on Mr. Corzine's planned negotiating strategy.